The Rajdamnern World Series gets underway tomorrow and Thailand’s oldest stadium has had a major makeover ahead of the events which will feature the return of Buakaw Banchamek.
The stadium first opened its doors back in 1945. But it has undergone a complete revamp since the pandemic with a new sound system, lighting rig and the introduction of female fights for the first time.
Regulars at Rajadamnern Stadium at the start of the decade would barely recognize the interior of the venue now:
View this post on Instagram
The Rajadamnern World Series will get underway tomorrow night. There are five different tournaments with eight fighters competing in each of them.
For men there are categories at featherweight, lightweight and welterweight and light middleweight while for female fighters there is a flyweight tournament. This will be the first time in the stadium’s history that it has hosted female fights.
Although there are no details about when he will be fighting or who the opponent will be Buakaw is set to compete on one of these cards:
Long absence
Buakaw has not fought at Rajdamnern since 2004. He stopped fighting in the Bangkok stadiums after winning the K-1 Max tournament for the first time that year.
He also won titles in two divisions at the Siam Omnoi Stadium and a Toyota Marathon. But it was through kickboxing that Buakaw first achieved global recognition.
Buakaw is expected to headline BKFC 3 on September 3rd. The promoter recently announced that this event would take place at Rajadamnern Stadium:
Promoted heavily
It is unclear whether Buakaw will fight on a Rajdamnern World Series card a BKFC card. But he is being promoted heavily by the former so it looks like we will see the 40 year old return to his roots with a Muay Thai fight at the stadium.
Rajadamnern World Series have even been advertizing Buakaw’s return on billboards in Times Square. It represents a very progressive, modern approach from a stadium that has always been associated with traditional, old fashioned Muay Thai.
Buakaw has never competed in western boxing so there will be a lot of interest in seeing him try bare knuckle boxing for the first time. But Muay Thau purists would love to see him back at the country’s most historic stadium fighting in the sport he started out in.
